Disabled NY teen girl gang-raped by male students in classrom, during class

2:59 pm - 01/15/2013

A 15-year-old girl with an IQ lower than 60 has had a lawsuit filed on her behalf Jan. 11 which alleges that she was gang-raped and nearly sodomized by two male students, and that school officials at Martin De Porres Academy in Elmont, New York knew about the attack and did nothing.

The girl, who is only known by court records as K.J., was the only girl in a class of 13. Because of her special education needs, the state of New York allows juvenile delinquents to attend class with non-offending, but mentally disabled, students. Such was the case with K.J.'s attackers who were both currently housed in Casa De La Salle, a home for juvenile delinquents.

K.J. was alleged to have been held under her desk, while being beaten in the face and sexually assaulted. What is worse, this all happened while there were 10 other students and two teachers in the classroom. As an example it is alleged that one of the teen-rapists danced on K.J.'s desk, while his partner attempted to anally sodomize her. Eventually K.J. was able to get away, and she waited until the next day to tell a social worker at the school. Nothing was done.

The lawsuit claims K.J.'s mother fought with school officials for months, during which she endured countless episodes of abuse and bullying. In a documented instance published by New York Daily News in early December the school placed K.J. alone in a room with one of her attackers so they could "discuss" their problems. The talk ended with K.J. leaving with facial lacerations. Again, no criminal action was taken.

Finally, months after the sexual assault, K.J. was allowed to be transfered to a different school.

Ed Dana, the Executive director of Martin De Porres claims that they fired the teachers involved, and that they take bullying very seriously.

I know teachers can't see every single thing that goes on in their classroom, but I'm so not buying that they didn't notice this. Which begs the question, what the fuck is wrong with them that they didn't stop it? I can't even. And why are juvenile offenders allowed apparently poorly supervised access to children with disabilities?!

I hope everyone involved in this gets their ass nailed to the wall. Poor K.J. The school had better be providing counseling for her.

I am really having a difficult time wrapping my head around how a girl could be held down by multiple people with TWO TEACHERS in the goddamn room and no one saw anything or suspected anything was amiss.

I know there's always jokes of teachers not being paid enough to do more than teach (or even TO teach), but FFS if someone is being sexually assaulted YOU DO SOMETHING. You intervene, you report it, but you DO SOMETHING.

I'm at a complete loss... How do we stop things like this from happening? Like, seriously? I need a step-by-step set of instructions detailing what I can do, RIGHT NOW, to help prevent stuff like this from happening.

My guess is that the teachers were scared of the the perpetrators. BUT that is NOT an excuse. Run out to the hall get someone. Get help.

I see the whole school as responsible. The school administration must have known long before this happen that the teacher didn't have control of this classroom. The teacher must have known that they didn't have control of this classroom. Something should have been done long before.

*RAGE* Firing those teachers (far too late) won't keep the school from being sued. And losing-- because they deserve it, both barrels. The teachers let the assault happen the first time, but the school perpetuated the agony for the poor girl by keeping her in class with her predators, and worse yet,

the school placed K.J. alone in a room with one of her attackers so they could "discuss" their problems. The talk ended with K.J. leaving with facial lacerations.How much "discussion" is a girl with a 60-IQ capable of, especially when the other party is someone she's rightly terrified of? Fucking cruel and inhumane.

I hope NY's policy of allowing juvenile offenders and the severely mentally handicapped to be in the same classroom will end, as a result of this. One group is made up of those who have shown they won't behave, and the other is made up of those who are especially vulnerable in general.

I work in special ed rooms on a regular basis. With 13 kids and 2 teachers, it shouldn't be that difficult to keep an eye everyone who is in the room. If I can do it as a sub without really knowing the kids, their regular teachers can do it. There is no way that the staff didn't know something was up.

the school placed K.J. alone in a room with one of her attackers so they could "discuss" their problems.

The fuck? the rule at every place I've worked has been no kids alone in rooms for any reason, let alone leaving a child alone with someone who was already known to have attacked her

Why am I not surprised this happened. After hearing horror stories about Spec.Ed teachers, I would not be surprised either if the teachers just didn't fucking care and ignored them.

I swear have of the teachers I have met through my advocacy are under trained and just out of school. They have no idea how deal with kids with variety of disabilities and needs and many of them get treated like crap by the other staff (this happened to my IEP teacher).

Because of her special education needs, the state of New York allows juvenile delinquents to attend class with non-offending, but mentally disabled, students.

What chucklehead thought this was a good idea!? Yes lets put criminals with Spec.Needs kids what possibly could go wrong!? Look I get rehabilitation with delinquents that have MI or DD, but would it behoove the state to filter children with murder convictions or sexual offenses to be in a classroom with children that communication, intellectual, motor and various other delays? I get putting kids with non violent offenses in Spec.Ed or IEP classrooms, that sounds like ok idea, but kids with violent offenses really sounds kinda dangerous.

This is horrifying. What that poor girl went through, and is still going through, only to have those who should have protected her turn a blind eye and let it happen, is unimaginable. Those two teachers should be fired and banned from ever having another job at a school again. In fact, they should be treated as if they participated in the rape, since they actually did by ignoring what happened WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. Every school authority who knew about this and did nothing but fuck up the situation even more should also be treated as rapists. They should all be sent to jail for the rest of their lives. The person who thought it was a good idea to put a mentally challenged female student in a classroom full of juvenile delinquents should also face charges and be sent to jail for contributing to this situation.

I can only hope this poor girl can get the counseling she is going to need and can eventually feel safe in her new school. This story made me cry for K.J.

No, I just can't. They got fired? Whoopdee-ding-damn. Look, I don't know the law that well, but if you see a RAPE happening, IN YOUR CLASSROOM, among YOUR students, for whom YOU are responsible, and you don't do a goddamn thing? Being fired should be the LEAST of your punishments.

On the main page of the school's website - http://www.mdp.org/ - there is a rather vague letter of explanation. It says that the "teacher was" fired. So I don't know what happened to the second adult in the room, or if he/she is still employed there.